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#AustrianGP: No birthday luck for Folger

The German MotoGP™ star had hoped his 24th birthday would turn out differently than retiring from the Austrian Grand Prix after just three laps due to braking issues.

Although Jonas Folger was able to carry his strong form over from the summer break, his start into the second part of the season has not gone according to plan. The MotoGP rookie was left no alternative than to abandon Sunday’s race in the picturesque scenery of the Styrian Alps due to technical difficulties. Despite issues from the previous days at the 4.3 kilometres long Austrian race track, he expected better from the race after switching to the trusted bike with a well-known setup, the feeling and his speed had returned quickly.
The championship continues in Silverstone with the British round in two weeks.

“It is very, very annoying because I went into the race with a good feeling as well as I felt very comfortable at all right from the start. In the first flying lap, I was on the best way to build up a rhythm and set to start an attack on Loris Baz, in order not to lose connection both factory Yamahas. But as soon I came back from lap two, brake pressure was gone. I was even lucky that I had recognized the problem in time to slow down the bike before going into turn one. Then, however, I tried to rebuild the brake pressure along the straight to turn three, but at that time there was no more pressure at all. So, I was forced to retire.”

“It would not have made sense to replace the braking system because we would have lost too much time and the second bike was prepared for rain. I know that after the crash this morning, the brakes were changed but what has led to this sudden brake failure, however, still need to be carefully investigated. In any case, it hurts that we have lost another race in this way. As I said, I felt very comfortable and confident that we could have done a strong race today. By the way, the reason for the crash during warm up were probably the used tyres which did not work in these low temperatures.”